Category Archives: Gamespace

The choice buzzword since the February 11 Nokia-Microsoft deal (satirically tagged on twitter as #NoWin) is ecosystem. Stephen Elop’s vision apparently stops short of a Linux-powered mobile solution. Either the newly-minted Nokia CEO can’t see how to monetize it or thinks it hasn’t happened fast enough for him– pick your choice of pundit assessments here.

The strategy that Nokia had originally described when migrating their Maemo efforts to the joint MeeGo venture with Intel was that the added value for their corporate bottom line would come from a combination of lower internal OS development costs along with a customized user experience on top of the MeeGo core… one that was promised at one point to “knock our socks off”. Who could reasonably argue with such a concept?

I was involved in one called Galactic Anarchy, run by a friend and business colleague, as a tester and (of all things) cartoonist. The concept was simple: a turn-based space conquest game played over snail mail (and later also email) populated by several character types (“races”), filled with interesting artifacts and of course founded on certain rules. Players examined the status of their fleets and owned worlds, and then issued commands to move, attack, defend and anything else the command set supported. Continue reading →

How many times have you been presented with a survey in which you were highly interested but failed to complete?

How often do you play a song you enjoy yet neglect to rate it?

How many software bugs have plagued your mobile device of choice and were not followed by reports sent to the developer(s)?

I think it’s safe to say that the one aspect of feedback that keeps our complaining (or praising) confined to unproductive quarters is the frequent disconnect between the usage and the feedback opportunity. At least in my experience, far too often the feedback mechanisms are separated from the origin of their need, especially when that starts with a mobile device. The greater the gap, the less likely we may be to take the step that can actually serve to prevent future aggravation.

Imagine as these devices get a little more powerful how they could play games on television screens that are now restricted to Xboxes, Playstations and Wiis. Then imagine how they could leverage that power along with high connectivity to internet cloud and home computing ecosystems to gain access to players and content. Expand that vision to propose a small video multiplexing device that allows 2 or more mobile computer users in the same room to partition the playing screen just as conventional game machines do now.

Suddenly the N900 portends a greater potential, and greater threat, for gaming. This platform may well be the first to truly bridge the world of Gameboys and immobile gaming devices.

Nokia took a beating for its N-Gage hardware, especially for not getting version 2 quite right. Maybe the company wizards did learn from that experience, and thanks to legendary corporate conservatism we are just now seeing the benefit of that lesson learned.

The N900 and its descendents may well show the world that Nokia does indeed get gaming, after all… I’m cautiously excited by the prospect and cannot wait to see where this goes. Arguments welcome. ;)

As promised in the last segment of this series I’m going to get into vehicle usage today. This article will be mostly oriented toward games I’ve recently played such as Halo PC and Unreal Tournament 3. I will have to save weapons for a future article, however, as this became longer than I had intended.

The title refers to one of the most popular and well-designed game vehicles to my knowledge, the Warthog of Halo. The jeep-like utility vehicle is very basic, a simple construction with limited options, but it is highly drivable especially in the PC version. Players (like myself) of driving age find to their delight that the physics of this offroad automobile are so close to real-life that their physical driving skills apply to the Warthog piloting experience. Starting and steering, particularly when using a mouse, are a driver’s delight. But this responsiveness is a double-edged sword, because it makes the ‘hog highly vulnerable to terrain and other game conditions. This makes skilled drivers a necessity, and they are highly valued.

Rate this:

Last time I covered mobilization strategies and explained how flexibility and cooperation will enable the success of a team. Now we’ll get into the old argument of Offense vs Defense and demonstrate the superior importance of the former.

Distilling gaming principles into simple terms can often be disingenuous, but this one tenet always holds true: offense wins games. Defense, on the other hand, can only secure an already sure win.

The typical multiplayer game has one or more goal types, among them capturing objectives, amassing resources or slaying opponents. The one element in common is that aggression is required to achieve these and similar goals. Passivley sniping from remote locations is a strategy that resides in the middle of offensive and defensive postures but as long as the target accomplishment of racking up virtual kills is being met, players are obviously aggressively pursuing enemies through their scope.